Vance Jackson, right, Davis Health System CEO, and Albert Wright, president and CEO of WVU Medicine-WVU Hospitals and COO of WVU Medicine-West Virginia University Health System, have finalized an intent to create a partnership between the two institutions in offering specialized cancer, cardiology, vascular and pulmonology care at Davis Medical Center in Elkins.
ELKINS, W.Va. — Davis Health System and WVU Medicine announced a partnership Tuesday that will significantly enhance health care services for thousands of Central West Virginia residents.
The collaboration between the two West Virginia institutions will establish a Heart and Vascular Institute within Davis Medical Center’s outpatient operation, bringing access to advanced diagnostics, expertise and resources in cardiology, pulmonology and vascular care.
In addition, DHS and WVU will partner to boost Davis Medical’s Cancer Care Center.
A Certificate of Need application will soon be filed with the West Virginia Health Care Authority seeking approval for the proposed upgrades, Davis Medical officials said Tuesday.
“This partnership represents a major step forward in achieving leading-edge specialty care for those in Randolph, Barbour, Tucker, Upshur and Pocahontas counties,” said Davis Health System CEO Vance Jackson. “We’re pleased to work more closely with WVU Medicine. It’s a great opportunity to offer our patients an even wider range of conveniences and options for care close to home.”
“By entering into this partnership, we are strengthening our long-time, positive relationship with Davis Health System,” said Albert Wright, president and CEO of WVU Medicine-WVU Hospitals and COO of WVU Medicine-West Virginia University Health System. “Davis has been and will continue to be a great ally in helping us achieve our mission of providing care to people all across the state and region.”
HEART AND VASCULAR INSTITUTE
In the coming months, officials with the two institutions will be finalizing plans and a timeline for the launch of the new institute, which will be located on the second floor of Davis Medical Center’s outpatient center. The currently unoccupied space will be ready for patients by January 2017, Jackson said Tuesday.
“Our physicians and hospitals will work much more closely together. We want to be very aligned with the cancer and heart and vascular care we provide,” Jackson said. “Co-branding our programs with WVU Medicine will give patients peace of mind that they are receiving the highest quality of care.”
“Keeping patients in their local communities for care is beneficial for everyone, most of all the patient,” Jackson added. “More patients will be diagnosed and treated at Davis Medical Center, lessening the need to travel for those same services.”
The new Heart and Vascular Institute will provide a full array of services, including:
Dr. Vinay Badhwar, the executive chair of the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute, has been assisting Davis Medical with developing the new partnership. Badhwar is an internationally recognized cardiac valve surgeon with extensive leadership experience in the cardiovascular field.
“It is a privilege and pleasure for the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute to partner with Davis Health System to enhance the level of care and services already provided locally by our excellent physicians,” Badhwar said. “With this new alliance, our mission will be to provide patients and the Davis Medical Center physicians with direct access to board-certified expert cardiovascular physicians and the most state-of-the-art care available in the state.”
Jackson said the long-term focus for the Heart Institute will be to work together with WVU to develop services that are appropriate to be provided in Elkins so local residents do not have to travel to Morgantown to get something done that they otherwise could have addressed locally.
“For cardiovascular, that’s what we are calling a clinical partnership,” Jackson said. “We are going to take space on the second floor and rent that to them so that they can bring down additional services. We will develop, on our end, a broader capability in vascular testing, pulmonary testing and cardiovascular testing. Bringing their level of physician specialty and our equipment to the table is what creates the Institute.”
WVU will have offices at Davis Medical Center that their cardiologists, pulmonologists and vascular surgeons can utilize. Dr. Chalak Berzingi, who currently services the Elkins area at DMC, will move to the Institute when it opens.
Jackson said WVU will provide a pulmonologist on a part-time basis with the goal of developing more business so that the two institutions can eventually jointly hire a full-time person to fill that role.
In addition, a vascular surgeon will be doing surgery once a month and also providing clinical services.
“We will expand cardiology,” Jackson said. “We have Dr. Berzingi through WVU here now, but they will add another cardiovascular nurse practitioner to expand Dr. Berzingi’s capability. They also are recruiting for a half-time cardiologist to come down here and work with Dr. Berzingi as well.”
“Right now, it’s not something that was an established part of the practice,” Jackson added. “Dr. Berzingi was available, if he was available here in town. He would offer to do in-patient consults or ER consults, but there was no structured schedule to that. With this agreement, they will be available to do in-patient consults and see if there are any needs from a cardiologist. WVU’s cardiology service also will be available through telemedicine for consults in the ER.”
In addition, Davis Medical’s current cardiac rehab services will be enhanced. Currently, the outpatient rehab program operates three days a week with a waitlist of 20. With the expansion, cardiac rehab services will be increased to five days a week, with the addition of a pulmonary rehab program.
“Overall, with the addition of the Heart Institute, we will have the other half-time cardiologist, another cardiovascular nurse practitioner, a part-time pulmonologist and a part-time vascular surgeon,” Jackson said. “That’s on the WVU side. As we are able to generate additional utilization, we will increase our staff to be able to handle that additional workload.”
Jackson noted there are no plans to add open heart surgery services here in Elkins, but the two entities will be looking at the success of this new venture and possibly consider future increases in service.
“There is going to be a level of service that you should only get at an academic medical center, but there are many services that a community hospital can provide, if they have the proper medical direction. That’s what the cardiology program does.”
“We feel that there is opportunity to grow,” Jackson added. “Through the expansion of the capabilities, but also through the expansion of our outreach as well.”
Historically, WVU and Davis Health Systems have worked together in the cardiac field. In 2009, the two institutions teamed up to expand access to cardiology services with the development of an outpatient clinic at DMC.
CANCER CARE CENTER
On the cancer-care project, WVU Medicine and Davis Health System will be enhancing its medical and radiation oncology offerings, with Dr. Donald Dleming and Dr. Marshall Sklar continuing to spearheading DMC’s program.
WVU will be helping Davis Health Systems enlarge its current facility so additional patients can be treated.
“The discussion for the cancer program started before I came,” Jackson said. “Mark Doak, that was one of the things he oriented me on when I got here. They were coming out of the preliminary phases with that discussion. So, he handed that off to me. We continued the discussion.”
“WVU is going to provide additional clinical capability to our cancer program,” Jackson added. “It will broaden the types of cancer we can treat here. Through our program, they feel they can reach even further geographically. They will be very much engaged in helping to increase the reach of the program. They also will look at adding surgical capability to our ORs to allow us to do some types of surgical cancer procedures.”
Because of the additional services that will be provided, Davis Medical’s Cancer Center will be enlarged to accommodate the additional patients.
“Now that we’ve done this signed agreement, we’ve gone ahead and put our preliminary designs in the hands of their cancer leadership,” Jackson said. “Hopefully, in a few months we will be ready to break ground.”
“It will be co-branded,” said Tracy Fath, Davis Health System vice president of marketing and planning. “Mountains and the flying WV. They (WVU) have programs similar to this in Garrett County, Maryland, Reynolds Memorial in Wheeling, Martinsburg and Camden-Clark (Medical Center in Parkersburg).”
According to a press release from Davis Health System, “the strategic move creates a partnership for specialized services without merger or acquisition by either health system, providing a landscape for the highest quality and more efficient care for patients.”
Jackson said that overall, Davis Health System is simply looking to provide the best quality care for the residents of Central West Virginia.
“We have been taking a broad approach and saying, ‘what don’t we offer that we are clinically capable of offering,'” Jackson said, “What are the barriers? We have been trying to approach each of those barriers very strategically. Partnering with WVU was the perfect answer for cancer and for cardio, pulmonary and vascular services. I think at the core is how can we do more in Elkins so people don’t have to travel as far?”